Speculative Fiction—an all-encompassing genre created to describe stories of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, and other stories that have an element of “What if...” in them. A story in speculative fiction is one that adds an element of the unreal, or asks, what would become of our society if history took a different direction at some important event? Fiction with a little something extra thrown in.—William D. Richards

Monday, June 19, 2017

Cut Down to Size (Once Giants, Book 3) by Eugene Kirk and Garan Mad

About Cut Down to Size:

Someone is killing people in the name of profit… and it’s up to Tina and Doc to stop them.

Embarking
upon a mission into IEA Madagascar, Tina and Doc encounter heavy
opposition while defending a factory against a team of heavily armed
mercs.

Outmanned and outgunned, their only chance for survival
is to call a shaky truce based on an even shakier mercenary code of
honor. But when a compromise can’t be reached, the future of both their
company and their client, hangs in the balance. Pushed to the edge, Tina
doubles down with a risky business move that could either see them
raking in millions or winding up dead broke.

Or just dead.

With
the stakes higher than ever, just how far will Tina go to win? Will she
pull it off at the risk of compromising everything she believes in?

Or will she be the one finally cut down to size…

Excerpt:

Moses had the throttle cranked. The aerodyne’s turbine
screamed above the wail of the wind as, below, the thick jungle canopy of
Ronamafina National Park flew by like something on a high-speed assembly line.

Doc shouted above the din as he
looked back at her. “Be ready for anything! We ain’t got much intel on this
one.”

“More like no intel,” Tina muttered,
checking over her gear. Uncertainty, anticipation, and dread combined to form a
deadly cocktail within her mind. Heading blind into a combat zone was something
she’d experienced only once before, and that was enough to know that this had
the makings of a bad situation.

Tina squinted against the onrushing
air, looking out over the blurred treetops and rolling terrain. Madagascar—she
hadn’t even known it was part of the East African Empire. “Who the hell would
waste their time attacking something way out here?”

“Shit if I know.” Doc pulled his
dreadlocks into a ponytail, his silver-gray eyes glinting with focus against
his deep mahogany skin. His overcoat billowed in the wind, revealing his
camouflage fatigues underneath, as well as his usual arsenal of small arms and
blades. “The locals say they’ve been hit twice already. Killed over two hundred
civilians. We might actually get a chance to catch the bastards this time, so
stay sharp.”

That thought caused even more
adrenaline to spike.

“Approaching Mananjary,” Moses, their
pilot, called over the comm from the cockpit. “Eleven o’clock.”

Tina shielded her eyes from the
mid-morning sun as she looked for their landing zone. She made out a plume of
gray-and-white smoke on the horizon, punctuated against a near cloudless sky.
They’d be there soon. She checked the snugness of the 20mm rifle slung across
her back and zipped her gray bodysuit to the neck.

Moses slid the aerodyne to a stop in
midair, and Doc signaled for her to jump. “Go! Go!”

Tina grabbed hold of one of the
spring-loaded tether lines at the door’s edge and leapt into the open air. The
monofilament strand screamed behind her as her eight-foot, six-hundred-pound
frame plummeted toward the earth. Her heartbeat pumped in her throat as the
ground spun and grew rapidly. Hot wind and white smoke filled her senses,
adding to the dizzying effect. With a touch of the brake, the tether reeled
with a zip and arrested her fall.

She let go a couple dozen feet above
the ground and dropped into a roll when her feet hit the hard-packed earth.
Something jabbed her in the back, and she instantly remembered the rifle she
had strapped there. “Puta merda . .
.”

Doc hit the ground next to her with a thud,
dirt and grass flying. The impact was so hard, Tina wondered if he had used the
brake at all.

“I’m taking point,” he said. He was up and
sprinting ahead before she had even regained her footing. The rest of his
message came through the comm: “Cover me, and then sweep the building from the
other side. Vinsa, give us some cover from above.”

Doc had his assault rifle ready and let off a
couple shots toward the burning structure ahead of them. Tina still couldn’t
make out who they were even fighting against. From above, the chainsaw howl of
the minigun wailed as Vinsa followed Doc’s command, laying down covering fire
that lit up the perimeter of their landing zone with fountains of packed dirt
and debris.

Tina took off, following Doc’s lead.
She felt a bit ridiculous crouching the way he did; at eight feet tall, she was
too big to miss no matter what she did.

About Eugene Kirk:

I've been writing for about twenty years, mostly in the Sci-fi
genre. Before then, I used to make up stories all the time for role
playing games, along side my co-author, Garan Mad. But now, with a wife,
two kids and a full time career as an engineer, I don't have time to
game anymore, but my creative juices still flow, so now I pour them into
my writing.

After publishing a couple of novels, I've switched
to focus on shorter length works; something I like to call "Made for TV
novels". They are fast, fun reads that you can digest in an hour or so,
much like an episode of your favorite TV show. And with the time
pressures we all have these days, maybe a couple of hours is all you can
afford to spend on some quick entertainment. So hopefully you'll enjoy
the format and if you keep reading it, I'll keep writing it.

About Garan Mad:

Though I trained as an artist, writing has always been a passion
of mine, though this was kept mostly to Role Playing games, alongside
long-time friend and co-author, Eugene Kirk.

A few years ago I
fulfilled my dream of publishing a series of comics called CONTRACT and
although comics/graphic novels have always been my first passion the
time and monetary constraints of artwork production is quite daunting.
So, after a bit of encouragement to return to writing I've jumped (back)
into the pool.

So pick up a book, give it a shot and, most important, if you enjoy PLEASE let us know.

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